John Dudley: Personal data has officially gone skin deep

A company in Wisconsin is embedding microchips in the hands of employees to access doors, log in to computers and buy snacks.

I was perusing Twitter last week for ideas for this column when stupidity obliged.

I came across a news item explaining how a tech company in Wisconsin is offering to embed a microchip in employees' hands in order to gain entry into the office, log into their computers or buy snacks from vending machines.

Now, I have no issue with snacks. They're my lifelong friends. But I get a little queasy when we start talking about burying my financial information and Netflix password beneath my skin.

I guess we've now arrived at the point where it's become too inconvenient to reach into our pockets for a payment card. Swiping an extremity is so much easier.

Since one of the things I enjoy doing in my spare time is poking holes in technological advances, I have a few questions:

1. What if you're wearing a glove when trying to swipe your way into the office? (This company is in Wisconsin, remember.)

2. Do you have to undergo minor surgery when your credit card expires, or when you leave for another job?

3. Are we entering a dark new era in which thieves migrate from stealing wallets to stealing body parts to gain access to our bank accounts?

Those concerns aside, I can see some upside to this.

Although the company offering the chips says no tracking capabilities are included in the current model, you know it's just a matter of time.

While that would mean an employer could easily surveil every movement of every worker every minute of the day — at work or at home — it could also come in handy for locating and rescuing someone who disappeared into one of those mega-snowdrifts Wisconsin (or Pennsylvania) is known for in the dead of winter.

It's perfectly understandable to feel concerned that a nefarious individual could easily compromise the timesaving intent of the device by sedating you and carrying you through a grocery store checkout lane to pay for their Ajax and Oreos.

"Uh, yeah, he's just sleeping. But it was his turn to pay, so ..."

Even more unsettling is the name of the company manufacturing the chip: BioHax.

I have nothing to add to that.

John Dudley can be reached at 870-1677 or john.dudley@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNdudley.